This is part of a series of image critiques. Each article describes a selected image based on a similar series of criteria. The goal is for the reader to become familiar with the critical concepts involved, in order to apply them to other images, developing a set of critical terms that can be used to analyze images, and make decisions about how best to process images, to provide the strongest result.

Image Format

This image is at, or near, its original full frame 35mm format. While a case can be made for less elongated “Medium Format” proportions for portraits, and for portrait orientation in portraits, here the environment is a main factor, and the landscape format is what includes it in the image.

Themes

As with any portrait, the main theme here is the subject of the portrait. He is positioned at the 2/3-point in the width of the image, with his eyes at the 1/3-point in the height of the image, which provides emphasis, while sharing the canvas with the other elements. The extreme detail, dramatic lighting, and high contrast framing against the dark door provide further accent to ensure that the subject dominates the overall image, without overwhelming it.

The secondary theme here is the restaurant articles in the center and left of the image. These consist of the high key, dramatically lit stemware, and the lower key items below, including the cook’s knifes at the center, which have a lighter background and increased impact above the other items to their left. These knifes, both through their central placement, their powerful outlines, and their human interest, become a very strong secondary element in the composition, and a major selling point for the image; every purchase of this image has been by a cook, and the knives may be the element that attracts them most strongly to this image.

The background element here is the nicely textured wall, and the doorway, with the very deep shadow tones of the door. The former provides a very light but textured backdrop to the main image, while the latter forms a very dark, but textured backdrop to the subject.

Palette

The key decision for this image was the choice to convert to black and white. The most common justification of converting an image is a lack of meaningful color, or the lack of a unified palette, such that B&W offers a more integrated composition. Both of those factors were at play here, but the opportunity to work with the dramatic lighting of this image in black and white was the greatest justification. Blacks are restricted largely to the door behind the subject, the knife handles, and the other hand-sized items beyond the knives to the left. This helps consolidate the story of the image. Spectral highlights are restricted to the cook’s face, and the stemware to the left, which helps to form another strong relationship in the image. Mid-tones are largely restricted to shadows in the lower half of the image, and the cook’s darker side. This helps to consolidate the image at large, and give it a stable base.

Lighting

Black and white images offer a greater emphasis on tonal range, and the opportunity to use that range to its fullest extent. The two natural light sources for this image are both limited-size, high-brightness sources, one from the upper left, the other from the right. This provides a degree of secondary lighting to avoid unreasonably dark shadows on the subject’s face, since we expect a certain range of densities in a portrait, and would find an image without some secondary light from the opposing side unacceptably harsh. The overall lighting allows for the much-admired type of Dutch portrait and still life lighting, without going all the way to a Chiaroscuro effect, where the subject emerges from total darkness.

The second key factor to the lighting is the dramatic lighting of the stemware on the left. This caught my eye even before I noticed the second light source, and realized it might be possible to shoot a portrait in this restricted space, with this challenging lighting. The specular highlights on the stemware, and the gradated effect of the lower light levels on the second shelf below creates a study in light in this corner of the image.

Eye Movement

Eye movement in a portrait tends to be quite simple; an environmental portrait offers a bit more complexity. Here the eye is assured to begin with the subject, with its high contrast silhouetting and dramatic lighting. The eye moves around the high contrast edges of the figure, absorbing the face and the figure. It is next drawn to the knives, by the weight and contrast of their handles, and down to the repeating shape and sharp outlines of their blades. From there it glances across the lowest shelf’s contents (whose highlights were darkened during processing to reduce the clutter and smooth out this section of the image), and up to the light, and the specular highlights of the stemware above. The eye finally passes over the even texture of the wall, back to the subject. There was originally the lower portion of a poster, possibly a legal document about the restaurant, on the wall above the door. Through discussion with others, it was decided that this offered little to the image, and interrupted the eye’s flow, so the final version has an uninterrupted wall, and the flow back to the subject is much smoother. For many viewers, despite their high contrast, the eyeglasses hanging on the cook’s chest are not noticed until the second lap around the image is begun.

Story

The story here is clear and unambiguous. Without the larger context this would be a dramatically lit image of a man. It is through the environmental context that the story of a cook in his kitchen arises. The order in which this story is told is very effective, with the natural eye movement telling us first about the man, then about the knives, then the other kitchen paraphernalia, so that by the time the eye returns to the subject, he has become a cook. It may be this innate relationship between the elements and the satisfactory way in which it tells the story that endears this image to cooks; along with their appreciation of the knives.

Process Notes

Shot freehand, in low light, as a single shot, since my limited Italian gained me permission for a photo, not a portrait session.

Processed from the original RAW file in Adobe Lightroom 3, exported as a high bit AdobeRGB TIFF, to Photoshop CS5 for local editing. File info added in Photoshop, down sampled to sRGB web rez JPG in Photoshop. NIK Silver Effects Pro might have been a better choice for B&W conversion, but was not on my laptop during this trip.

C. DAVID TOBIE has been involved in color management and digital imaging from their early development. David has worked to see affordable solutions put in place for graphic design, prepress, photography and digital imaging, and then taught users how best to utilize them. He has consulted internationally for a wide range of color-related companies, and is best known by photographers for his writing and technical editing of texts and periodicals for the photo industry such as Mastering Digital Printing, and Professional Photographer magazine, and his seminars on color and imaging at photographic workshop around the globe. David is currently Global Product Technology Manager at Datacolor, where he develops new products and features for their Spyder line of calibration tools. His work has received a long line of digital imaging product awards including the coveted TIPA award, and a nomination for the Spyder line of calibration tools. Much of David’s recent writing can be found at his photography blog: cdtobie.wordpress.com, and his samples of his photography can be seen at: cdtobie.com.